El Paso Times
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A bunch of angry, fed-up federal police in Juárez launched a mini-rebellion against some of their commanders Saturday, accusing them of corruption.
That prompted officials in the Mexico Attorney General’s Office to send internal affairs personnel and other investigators to Juárez to investigate the incident and the allegations of corruption.
It should be a fertile field for the investigators. There have always been questions about corruption in the ranks of law enforcement in Juárez and in the rest of Mexico.
Perhaps the last straw was the perception of police officers that their commanders’ corruption and links to drugs and the cartels were putting the officers’ lives in danger. That could be quite a motivation.
While this investigation could be seen as a positive step, there also have to be questions about those who are doing the investigating. Are they “clean” or might they also have ties to the cartels that would skew this investigation? Will this end up with an official whitewash? Is there any will in Juárez or Mexico City to get this situation cleaned up?
Well, at this time, the situation in Juárez has gotten so bad that anything is worth a try.
It’s a good sign that people “in the ranks” are getting fed up with the corruption that is fostering and contributing so much to the bloody chaos in Juárez. However, those 248 officers who took part in the Saturday mini uprising are also going to be investigated.
It remains to be seen how this incident and its aftermath will affect the patrolling of Juárez streets by some 4,500 federal police. The mayor said there aren’t any plans to put army troops back on the streets. The federal police took over patrol duties from the army last spring.
The bottom line is that nothing seems to be able to stop or even lessen the violence in Juárez.
Copyright 2010 El Paso Times, a MediaNews Group Newspaper